Chapter 604: Before Death

"If I were to say all my titles, I'm afraid it would take some time, but I don't have enough time now."

Xia De did not answer the other party's question, but instead asked:

"So, you appeared here, not because you were 'sucked' in, but voluntarily?"

The man nodded:

"Yes, this place needs a guard. This world doesn't have a core, but there are some dangerous places. When the Nature Church chose this site back then, it was meant to suppress this place corresponding to this world, but later the problem became more and more serious, so every hundred years, the Church would let a sufficiently powerful Ringed Shushi preserve their self-consciousness through a ritual before death, and then enter this world to guard the church."

He introduced, without any intention of concealment:

"So if you have nothing to do, leave here. If an accident happens here, no one will survive."

"Sorry, I have some business that requires me to enter the church. But I guarantee that I will absolutely not damage the Church's seal."

Xia De said, trying his best to make his tone truly express the emotion of "apology." He admired the soul in front of him very much.

"Fine, then go in."

The man shrugged.

"Hmm?"

The eyes behind the mask blinked. This was not within his expectations:

"You're just letting me in like this? Don't you want your duty anymore?"

"Oh, I feel powerful strength in you. To be precise, if we really were to fight, even with the help of this church's power, I couldn't beat you. The Ringed Shushi system is a system where soul and body are unified. Without a body, even if you were a high-tier Ringed Shushi in life, it's useless. Rather than fighting and letting you destroy the church's sealing measures, it's better to let you in. Besides, having stayed here for a long time, I can also distinguish the characteristics of souls. Your soul is not bad, one could even say it is noble. I feel the power of compassion and courage."

"Then... thank you?"

Xia De said, nodding, and then asked:

"May I ask, before me, has anyone else come in? Just in this recent period of time."

The man was still leaning against the wall:

"Yes, a person with wings. He was terrifying, very terrifying. I didn't even dare to show my face to see what he looked like."

That was undoubtedly Priest Ao Gu Si. It seems his power in the Ringed Shushi was very strong.

The soul of the Nature Church Ringed Shushi pointed to the depths of the church:

"The other party seems to be very good at manipulating the power of death, and he doesn't look like a bad person either. He entered the deepest part of the church, probably wanting to obtain the spiritual rune related to 【Death】 by getting close to death."

Things were going much smoother than Xia De had imagined.

"Do you know that strange guy with wings? Do you know what he is actually doing? If possible, I really hope you can take him away too. Absolutely nothing can go wrong here."

The soul asked, and Xia De shook his head:

"I don't know what he wants to do either. Didn't you follow him?"

"We are forbidden from entering the interior. I can only move in the nave."

The soul said helplessly.

"Then can you tell me, what exactly is in the depths of the church?"

Xia De asked again, thinking the other party might not say, or might give a vague answer. He didn't expect the soul to nod readily again. Xia De felt that he would definitely remember this person; he had encountered too many people in this world who only said half of what they meant.

"Of course I can tell you, inside is a door."

Xia De hesitated for a moment:

"You don't want to tell me that inside the church is that door that passes through true death from the life-death Ringed Shushi, right?"

"Yes."

The soul looked at Xia De, its transparent eyes full of spirit:

"Restless death is invading here, thereby affecting the Sikar Mountain area in reality. If the Church does not intervene, sooner or later, the overflowing death will swallow the central and eastern parts of the continent, turning the entire Rommel mountain range into something like the ghost city of Bordeaux. Besides the Church, there are other powerful existences helping to suppress this abnormal world. What the Church seals and suppresses is merely this door here. It is this place that gave death the opportunity to invade reality, and this place is becoming more and more powerful."

He did not use the term "Old Continent," which shows that in the era when the other party was alive, perhaps the New Continent had not yet been discovered.

"Such an important place, and you actually allowed that winged person to walk past?"

Xia De asked again, but the latter shook his head:

"Even if they are strong, they cannot affect the other end from this end. Only the death from the other end can affect the Ringed Shushi we are in, and then affect the real world. This is the rule of the Ringed Shushi. So, I didn't stop him."

Xia De nodded, and after nodding slightly to express his thanks, he walked along the aisle between the pews filled with candles on the carpet toward the depths of the church.

"I want to give a warning."

Behind him, the soul leaning against the wall was still speaking:

"No matter what the person you are looking for has done, you must absolutely not cross that door. Once you pass, you are truly dead. All mortals must die, and all things have an end. Behind that door is the true end."

Xia De stopped his steps:

"Of course."

He continued to walk toward the depths of the church.

Compared to the state of "a soul every three steps, a ghost every five steps" outside the church, the number of ghosts in the Nature Church was significantly less. Among the candles that could be seen everywhere and would not shorten no matter how they were burned, and the charms hanging on silver threads, only ghosts dressed as clergy of the Nature Church were floating unconsciously, showing no reaction to Xia De's appearance.

Xia De could at least be sure that there were definitely no evil spirits here, so there would be no need to fight on the subsequent journey.

The church itself was a building with a complex internal terrain, but inside this church between life and death, there was almost only one road. All the forks in the road were blocked tightly by tables, chairs, benches, or other debris. Only on the path that could be advanced, there were dense ritual traces, almost illuminating the interior of the church into gold.

I don't know if it was because the existence of the door representing the concept of "death" in the depths of the church distorted space, but when walking in the corridors inside the church, Xia De felt that those corridors were crooked.

This was not just a distortion in the horizontal extension direction, but also included distortion left and right, up and down. Coupled with the golden ritual traces everywhere, the silver threads connecting the steam pipes on the left and right sides, the hanging charms that had to be pushed aside to avoid hitting his head, and the candlelight that was still swaying even though there was no wind, this made the scene in front of him increasingly strange.

As he moved forward, the white fog became thinner, but at the same time, the air became colder. Everything around that came from the real world was slowly fading.

When Xia De turned into the last corridor, the candlelight on the ground had all turned blue, the walls were as dilapidated as if they had gone through thousands of years of time, all the divine arts traces were still there, but all were decayed.

"Death is affecting this place. The priest is really something, what exactly is he doing?"

The white fog retreated completely here, and the air was so cold that every breath Xia De took could spit out white mist. If he didn't know this was a church, the scene in front of him would look very much like a haunted house covered in charms.

"Is the priest right in front?"

The pulling force on the holy emblem pendant on his chest was also getting stronger, which meant that Xia De was getting closer and closer to his goal.

Turning the corner of the corridor, the corridor in front finally alienated into a building style that didn't look like a church at all. The long, narrow, and curved corridor finally led to a square entrance connecting to the underground, and from that entrance, black wind was gradually blowing out.

The wind swept past Xia De, who was checking the situation, making him shiver violently, and his soul felt a coldness he had never felt before.

The wind left a thin, long wound on his face, and then from the wound, golden light traces flashed, and star-like golden embers drifted toward the back with the wind.

"What's going on? There is the power of a god nearby."

Xia De covered his face, and then saw on his raised right hand, cracks slowly crawling and extending.

【No, but this position will make the power of the soul more prominent.】

"Has it already been enough to manifest the divine radiance?"

Xia De muttered to himself, looking at the black underground tunnel entrance. Although silver threads covered with charms and bells blocked the entrance, it was still no problem to push aside those highly elastic metal threads and continue walking down.

【Outsider, the concept of death ahead has almost reached the point of overflowing.】

"I know, I will be careful. Since I've come this far, I have no reason to retreat."

He bent down and walked down, stepping on the steps made of rough stone materials. After crossing the thirteenth step, he arrived in the underground corridor.

The whistling black wind kept blowing from the front of the corridor. Countless whispers rang in his ears, and Xia De could clearly hear that it was the murmurs of the dead at the last moment of their lives. Those cold winds were like knives, leaving wounds one after another on Xia De's body, leaving cuts one after another on his clothes. Subsequently, golden divine radiance appeared from those cracks, protecting the outsider's soul.

Even Xia De had to raise his arms to block his face to struggle forward. The wind blew him so that he couldn't stand steadily, and the soft black mud under his feet seemed to make him sink into the ground with every step.

No white fog, no divine art rituals, not even a single ghost. This was the final road.

Except for the golden scars on his body, the brightest color on Xia De's body was the long, thin line on his wrist. It seemed to have truly burned, and the fire-red light drifted sparks toward the back with the cold wind. It was precisely because Xia De used his right hand tied with this line to block his forehead that he could maintain his body temperature and the stability of his soul.

"So, what kind of fire is that cluster of flames in Sister Daifulin's hand, to be so powerful."

Death was suppressing all supernatural powers, and the holy emblem pendant on his chest that guided the direction had lost its effect. But it didn't matter, because on the muddy ground covered with mud, there was a row of clear footprints, footprints belonging to Priest Ao Gu Si.

Xia De blocked his forehead with his right hand, lowered his head to resist the black wind with the power of death, and then watched the footprints on the ground move forward step by step in the final dark passage.

Death was eroding him, embracing him, and that cold power seemed to appear directly in the space in a concrete way. Xia De even had a feeling that the 【Death】 spiritual rune might appear in his life ring in the next second.

Moving forward step by step, the light traces on his body also became brighter and brighter. Because he couldn't raise his head, he could only keep hoping to see Priest Ao Gu Si lying on the ground, or the old man sitting against the wall in the next second.

But nothing appeared, until Xia De reached the end of the corridor and walked out of the passage, arriving at the huge, towering square space at the end of the passage, still without seeing the familiar figure.

There was nothing here, only a huge pair of stone doors standing on the wall directly opposite the end of the passage.

Those ancient stone doors seemed to represent time itself. On them were depicted stories about death, and ancient runes were written that would make Xia De dizzy just by looking at them. This place seemed to be describing the initial death, but it also seemed to be describing other stories that were completely incomprehensible.

And those black winds with the power of death were precisely blowing out from the cracks in the stone doors, but they were still strangely silent, cold and quiet, as if everything in the world had stopped here.

【Outsider, you felt the whispers.】

Seeing that door at the same time, a prompt was given in his ear. Xia De therefore understood that the door separating true death was actually an artifact.

"But where is Priest Ao Gu Si?"

He walked out of the passage and then stopped, watching the string of Priest Ao Gu Si's footprints on the ground leading all the way to the door.

At this moment, even Xia De felt that his whole body was numb to the point of almost being unable to move, and at the same time, drowsiness was surging up. He had to concentrate all his spirit to resist the desire for eternal slumber.

That desire was really tempting, but fortunately, the images of the cat Mia and the young ladies kept echoing in Xia De's head.

Having experienced so many adventures, from thousands of miles away in Tobesk to Midehillburg, finally standing in the deepest part of the Ringed Shushi, what Xia De saw was that the footprints extended to this ancient stone door, but the priest was not here:

"The priest said in a dream that he had 'crossed the boundary of death.' Could this not refer to the life-death Ringed Shushi, but..."

Xia De opened his mouth slightly and looked up at this stone door. He could feel that behind the door was the end of everything, and he even felt that he could see what happened to Priest Ao Gu Si in the recent past.

Rat Ao Gu Si had already crossed the door of death.